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Customer feedback surveys not only offer small business owners important feedback, but they also emphasize your value to your customers. When customers take the time to think about your business and how it serves them, they realize its importance to their lives. They also have the chance to comment on issues that need your attention. As a small business owner, you have the choice of several formats for customer feedback surveys. The format you choose depends on the type of results you're seeking. For instance, some survey methods are more reliable than others when searching for responses from a specific demographic group.

Printed Surveys

Printed surveys are easy to distribute to a wide range of people. You can hand them out, put them in customer areas of your business, such as a waiting room, or mail them to people. Short and simple printed surveys give your customers a quick way to inform you about your services. For issues that are sensitive, printed surveys prove ideal because they offer anonymity. If anonymity is unimportant, it's easy to account for printed surveys that you mail because you can number them according to recipient. Keep a master list of numbered surveys and who you mailed them to, so you can identify who participates and who does not. You can send a follow-up letter to urge those who haven't sent in their survey to do so.

However, the cost of mailing and printing surveys may be expensive. Also, you may need to provide forms in alternate languages, such as if your business serves a population of non-English speakers. If you're not fluent in other languages, you will need to hire someone to translate these surveys for you. If you allow people to take survey forms away from your business, you may never get them back unless the people are motivated to provide feedback. In the case of anonymous surveys, you have no ability to contact a specific respondent if you want more information.

Phone Surveys

Phone surveys are convenient. People may be more likely to answer a few quick questions on the phone than to fill out a printed survey. By phone, you can find out quickly if a potential respondent is qualified to answer your questions, and you can ask follow-up questions as needed. Also, if you contact people within your local calling area, your monetary investment is limited.

Phone surveys do have disadvantages. The possibility exists that no one will answer the phone or the person will not return your call if you leave a message. An unanswered or unreturned call can result in wasted time or fewer overall responses. Also, respondents can give false information, and there's no way for you to know it. Another thing to consider is that questions requiring complex answers don't work well for impromptu phone surveys. This is because people often multitask while they talk to on the phone, and their attention may be limited. A phone interviewer's tone of voice may influence the respondent to answer in a certain way, which causes interview bias.

In-Person Surveys

When conducting an in-person survey, you have the ability to target specific people in a specific location at a certain time of day. If the survey concerns service or a shopping experience, you can capture the respondent's impressions immediately following the experience. This survey style offers the advantage of witnessing any non-verbal communication cues the respondent expresses, such as a furrowed brow, rolling of the eyes or a genuine smile.

On the other hand, the interviewer's tone of voice and facial expressions could affect the respondent's answers, introducing bias into the process. Additionally, the manpower needed to survey a large sample of respondents can be expensive unless you use volunteers. Unless responses are recorded electronically, the results take more time to compile.

Internet Surveys

An online survey has wide distribution possibilities. With the use of email, you can reach people globally. Even though you may survey a widespread sample of the population, tracking Internet surveys is easier than tracking in-person, written or phone surveys because the data is compiled electronically. Also, you can add links with Internet surveys to provide additional online information to respondents. You can set up the survey to require respondents to answer a question before they can advance to the next question. Some Internet surveys give you the option of including a progress bar, which allows respondents to quickly view how much of the survey they have completed and helps keep them engaged.

A disadvantage is that online survey respondents must have a computer, an Internet connection and computer skills. Even if the respondent has the equipment and skills to participate, she may not open the email due to computer safety concerns or time constraints. Also, even though the survey may have been sent to a specific person's email address, you have no way of knowing who completed the survey. As a result, it can be difficult to survey a representative sample of the population this way.

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About the Author

Based in Texas, Cynthia Measom has been writing various parenting, business and finance and education articles since 2011. Her articles have appeared on websites such as The Bump and Motley Fool. Measom received a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Texas at Austin.